John Swinney is facing growing pressure to sack his Housing Minister as Scotland’s homelessness emergency shows no sign of easing.
Labour said it was “unthinkable” for Paul McLennan to stay in his job at a time more than 10,000 children are stuck living in temporary accommodation due to a chronic shortage of affordable housing.
Scottish Government figures show that as of September 30, there were 16,634 households living in temporary accommodation – which included 10,360 children.
Both totals are the highest since records began in 2002, with McLennan accepting the figures are “far too high”.
The data shows the number housed in bed and breakfast accommodation has increased by more than two-fifths, with 2,680 homeless households in B&Bs in September last year – a rise of 41% from 2023.
There was also a 34% rise in those placed in hostels, up from 633 in September 2023 to 846 a year later.
Mark Griffin, Scottish Labour housing spokesman, said: “This is nothing short of a national scandal and responsibility lies squarely with the SNP government. The SNP slashed funding for affordable housing and raided Council budgets for years.
“The SNP’s shameful negligence has left thousands of Scots with no home, hundreds sleeping rough, and more than 10,000 children without the safe, secure home they deserve.
“It means nothing to declare a housing emergency if you don’t take any action to deal with it. By any measure, Paul McLennan has failed as Housing Minister and it is unthinkable for him to stay in the job.
“John Swinney needs to take responsibility for his government’s appalling failures, sack his Housing Minister and set out a real plan to tackle this emergency and ensure every Scot has a home.”
Sean Clerkin, a veteran anti-austerity campaigner, said: “Paul McLennan has to be sacked now and be replaced by a competent Housing Minister, elevated to the Cabinet of the Scottish Government to develop and implement a Housing Emergency Action Plan.
“Billions of pounds must be secured from the public purse and from public and private pension funds to build thousands of new social rented homes allied to bringing thousands of empty homes back into circulation through retrofitting and renovating them into warm, dry and secure homes for homeless families.”
McLennan said: “The number of homeless people in Scotland and children in temporary accommodation is far too high. However, we are determined to reverse that trend and we are taking decisive action to ensure no-one need experience the trauma of being homeless.
“The key to tackling homelessness is delivering more homes and we have a strong track record in doing so, having supported the delivery of 135,000 affordable homes since 2007. That’s 47% more per head of population than England and 73% more than Wales.
“However, we can and will go further. The draft Scottish Budget for next year includes a £200 million boost to the affordable housing programme, taking our total investment for 2025-26 to £768 million. We are working with partners to maximise that investment.”
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